Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, has announced the “1,000 Chinese Visitors to Morocco” campaign with Beijing Yougo World International Travel Service Co. Ltd. (Uniway), the largest Chinese tour operator specialising in outbound tourism to the Middle East and Africa.
The award-winning airline is also joining hands with the Moroccan National Tourist Office to support plans to attract 100,000 Chinese visitors each year by 2018. This is helped by the visa exemption policy for Chinese tourists from 1 June 2016. Uniway expects to carry 1,000 Chinese travellers with Etihad Airways to Morocco between February and June 2017.
“We are delighted to see the obvious increase in demand and the great interest from Chinese tourists to visit Morocco. This is attributable to the visa relaxation policy granted by the Morocco government.” said Daniel Barranger, Senior Vice President of Global Sales, Etihad Airways.
“The UAE government also granted visa upon arrival for Chinese visitors from 1 November this year, which positions Abu Dhabi as a perfect stopover for the visitors before transiting to Morocco. They can spend a couple days enjoying Abu Dhabi, a modern and vibrant Arabian city offering a rich variety of remarkable leisure activities to tourists.”
Etihad Airways operates daily flights between Abu Dhabi and Casablanca, and a twice-weekly service between Abu Dhabi and Rabat, the capital city of Morocco. Taking Etihad Airways’ non-stop services between China and Abu Dhabi, Chinese tourists from Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and Hong Kong can conveniently connect at the airline’s hub in Abu Dhabi to their final destination in Morocco.
He Zhenbin, CEO of Uniway, said: “The number of Chinese leisure travellers to the Middle East and Africa has increased tremendously in recent years. Etihad Airways is the airline of choice for the Chinese customer offering convenient connections, dedicated inflight service, personalised products, as well as competitive prices.”
Rabia Talhimet spokesperson of the Moroccan National Tourist Office, commented: “We are confident that we will be able to achieve the goal of attracting 100,000 Chinese visitors each year by 2018. The Moroccan National Tourist Office will strengthen its cooperation with Etihad Airways to serve the Chinese tourism market still further. In the meantime, we will speed up the readiness of the infrastructure, including our digital presence in China as well as ensuring the readiness of the local hospitality industry to meet Chinese tourists’ needs.”
